October Event: Independence Server, on the 30th, (11PM UTC)

[spellcast 983]

---

OK, I'm beat, heading to bed.  Hope everyone is having fun who is staying up.

 

I will try to be on and run another smaller combat event around 2PM UTC on the 31st... in other words, 15 hours AFTER the original event started.

If i get up in the morning and it just isn't going to happen for me, i'll update the thread.

 

 

---

Update; only a couple of hours to go, I'm still adding side stuff, but have updated the second post in this thread to reflect how the event is going to happen and clarify a few things.

 

---

 

So the events are shaping up nicely. I have however run into a minor snag IRL which is going to mean running the event somewhat later in the night UTC time. I am currently shooting for ~11PM UTC for the combat portion. The hunt itself will open at the end of the combat, which should run for around 1 hour. 

 

The hunt portion will run entirely on, (and under) the freedom market deed. You will NOT be able to take horses, carts, etc down into the underground portion of the hunt. Please make sure any mounts that you bring have been set up with appropriate gear and permissions to be allow you to safely leave them in the market and reclaim them later, or make other arrangements as you need.

 

This hunt has some very different aspects to it than my normal ones, for one thing, all you know is that there is a treasure somewhere under the market. (instructions for how to begin the hunt will be provided later) Once on the hunt information you gather will be used to gain access to different parts of the deed and the extensive catacombs beneath it, but the information is not tied to specific clues. It WILL be possible in some cases to learn where you need to go and what you need to do by learning it from other players who have discovered the information.

Players are free to share or with hold this information as they see fit, but all of the information you need can be gathered in the game.

 

Portions of the hunt are non-linear, and there are different paths you can take to reach the same endpoint. Solving the puzzles and clues does not give another distinct clue, instead you will gain access to new parts of the catacombs. To make this work with the current setup of the game, There will be teleports used. Plan accordingly, and if you have a computer that loads slowly, you might want to lower graphics settings to speed up loading times as you will be reloading the world at regular intervals once inside the dungeon. 

 

While i will have the "normal" 26 chests in a treasure room located at the farthest point inside the catacombs, with the normal mix of 10 prize sets, 15 lesser prizes, and 1 grand prize, I also hope to have some little side quests inside the mine, where the first person to find, and complete them will get a reward specific to that mini-hunt. In other words, exploring everything may give you a chance to gain extra prizes.

 

In order to make it fair however, once a player has reached the treasure room, they will be unable to return to the rest of the catacombs. Basically, if you race through to get to the final room, you will be unable to go back and try to find the little side missions. If you take the time to explore everything in depth, you might find that the final room has been picked over once you get to it. The choice is yours.

 

I will make sure to note about the side quests before the event actually starts because if I run into snags while finishing the rest of the mission I may not have time to do them.

 

I will probably not be running any extra combat events before the hunt begins. I intend to try to run a second combat event sometime on the 31st. Probably around noon UTC to give people who were unable to attend the first one a chance, and just because spawning waves of zombies to eat your brains is fun.

 

---

 

So we are closing in on another event, This one... 

 

Danger lurks under the Freedom market, and tho it has lain quiescent for years, it begins to stir again. Strange rumbles have been reported by the merchants, and moans occasionally drift up through the wells at the center of the market square.

 

I'm quite excited about this one, In many ways you could say it has been years in the making.

 

This is actually going to be two events in one... maybe more than that actually...

 

Quite some time ago, we had an ... uhh, eccentric... art dev by the name of Mr Bloodworth, who would entertain himself by spawning mobs at freedom market from time to time. Before he left for another project, he asked me and tich, and some others, to help him design, and plan, an event at the market for Halloween. He never got to run it, and the concept sat quiet for a long time, but the framework was never taken down.

 

The event will begin with a monster attack on the market, run by myself and any other GM's i can conscript  interest in helping me. I plan to run waves of critters of all shapes, sizes, and entertaining names for about an hour or so (no uniques, and probably not very many valrei critters either), at which point the second part of the event will begin.

This will be similar  to one of the hunts, except that solving the first puzzle(s) will lead you to  a place that no-one has been to other than a few staff members.  (you will be teleported into an underground cave system by the hunt portion of the event, you will NOT be able to take mounts, and yes, you will have a way to teleport yourself back out if needed, but only from a specific point in the cave system)

 

Since the majority of the hunt will take place in an enclosed environment, long distance travel will be minimal, but exploration will be mandatory.  Oh, and while you are exploring, I'm trying to arrange for some.... company for you. (hint, bring your swords, axes, clubs, and armor, the combat will not stop just because you are below ground)

 

In theory, this should be a fairly level playing field, no high speed mounts, an area no one has seen before, and puzzles that are unique to the area.

 

As always, I'll post more details as we get closer to the actual date, but the time should be early evening UTC, tho I might be able to get time to run some small battles at the market earlier in the day and possibly the day after for anyone unable to make the main event time. I'll post info about those also if they pan out.

 

Incidentally, I am not totally sure how prizes are going to work yet, there will be some at the end of the hunt but I'm thinking there may end up being some in "side quests" scattered around the dungeon as well. A lot will depend on how much time i can devote to it over the next few weeks, I have the framework set up, but the demon is in the details as it were...

[spellcast 983]

OK, some final details about these events.

 

The combat portion will be straightforward, I (and possibly a couple of other sadistic evil and cruel GM's) will spawn things at the market, and those things will try to kill you. If you live, you win.

 

Now, with that out of the way.

 

The hunt:

 

After we allow you all to respwan  Once the combat part is over, I will place a start sign for the hunt part of the event. There are a couple of different stages to the hunt, one aboveground, where you have to determine how to get into the catacombs which should be fairly simple if a bit time consuming, and one below, once you are in.

 

No matter how far you progress inside the catacombs (if you even get into them) you will be able to return to the point you arrived inside the mine and return to the surface. The only exception to that is once you reach the END of the catacombs, there will be a return point there that will replace the other one. 

 

I did not have time to create good monster spawns inside the catacombs for this event. I know how i want to do it, but it is more time consuming than i expected so instead I am just going to fly around for a while after the hunt part begins and occasionally spawn some stuff in the mines while you are exploring them. It will NOT be anything exceedingly dangerous unless your name is xallo, then all bets are off.

 

How the inside of the catacombs works:

Your goal is to find a way to get to the treasure room, However, as you explore you will find certain passages block you (by teleporting you back into areas you have already been) until you solve some puzzles / explore and locate specific items and do something with them.

[i apologize in advance for the really cheesy way i explained the teleports in most cases... Just, take it as tongue-in-cheek humor and go with it.]

You can take a couple of different paths, and get different puzzles as you explore. You do NOT need to do them in any specific order, you can be working on several of them at a time even. They do interlock somewhat, so you will have to solve most of them to get access to all of the catacombs area.
 

I added several small rewards for poking around as well, nothing excessive or super valuable, and everyone can get each of them once in most cases. ( to keep things mysterious there may be a couple that will end up being mutually exclusive, if you take one you will lose the chance at the other and might not even know it was there, I am still adding them as the night goes on.)

 

The end point. There are the usual 26 chests. 10 with the set prize that is gaurenteed and the other 16 chests that all look the same broken down between 1 grand prize and 15 lesser prizes if you want to take a chance at the big reward.

 

IF YOU COMPLETE THE HUNT AND FIND THE TREASURE ROOM ONCE. PLEASE DO NOT GO BACK ON AN ALT TO COLLECT ANOTHER PRIZE. IF THERE ARE MORE THAN ONE PLAYER SHARING AN INTERNET CONNECTION, YOU MAY BOTH COLLECT PRIZES AS LONG AS YOU ARE BOTH ON AND WORKING THE CLUES AT THE SAME TIME. 

A second account from the same internet connection running the hunt at a later time and claiming a treasure chest will be considered to be against the rules of the hunt and both accounts may be punished and have any prizes revoked.

[fatboy 448]

nice! Spellcast ill gladly accept Donated monsters, just toss them on my island, i need a little fear factor added back :-P

[Ricowan 199]

It sounds fun, but what incentives will there be for characters with really low fight skill?

[spellcast 983]

It sounds fun, but what incentives will there be for characters with really low fight skill?

 

 

At the beginning of the fight part of the event we will be starting with smaller waves of fairly easy critters. It should be possible for even beginning fighters who are careful to get a kill. Later on with a large group present you should be able to land some hits and gain some skill with a certain amount of safety even against the nastier opponents.

The hunt portion itself will be more focused on the puzzles and exploration than combat. (in other words, there will be some wandering monsters of various strengths, not waves of high level mobs) It is also not going to be necessary to participate in both parts, the hunt portion will be accessible without direct GM assistance, tho I cannot guarantee what mobs might be running around underground since the actions of other players will have an effect on that if everything works out the way i plan it to.  

[Nikab 110]

Sounds very promising, looking forward to it 

... and ofc thanks for putting a lot of effort into organizing this 

[spellcast 983]

OP updated with more info.

[spellcast 983]

oops, got distracted last night and forgot to add the timer, so i did that this morning.

 

as always, If i got the math wrong someone let me know. 11pm UTC is the time I am planning for.

[Jaz 2,665]

Hmm, the timer is showing 1AM UTC if I'm not wrong...

I'm wrong timer is fine.

 

Thanks for the final timing, it seems will be fine for me and plan to be there, really exciting!

Edited October 29, 2015 by Jaz

[Tich 1,389]

Too late for me

[spellcast 983]

I plan to run a second combat event ~12 hours after the main event as well, Some of that will depend on how late i stay up laughing at the players running around in the mines. 

 

So far the main part of the dungeon is strictly exploring and figuring out how to solve the clues that let you into different parts of the catacombs, and ultimately, to the treasure room.

 

I have not managed to get wandering monsters added (I know how i plan to do it, but RL has tossed a couple of minor snags at me and time is running short)

 

There are no side quests yet per-say, however I have added a couple of points where small rewards can be gained once per character by poking around into different things.  Nothing exciting or valuable, but some unique items at least.

 

Getting ready to head to work, when i get home tonight I should be able to finish polishing up (and testing the various pieces of) the main part of the event, and if I have enough energy I will see about some simple monster spawns and maybe a couple of side quests. 

[Yaga 2,887]

Thanks for organizing another great event, Spellcast.

 

This one is too late for me though (midnight). Good luck everybody!

Edited October 29, 2015 by Yaga

[DKSprocket 412]

 

The hunt portion will run entirely on, (and under) the freedom market deed. You will NOT be able to take horses, carts, etc down into the underground portion of the hunt. 

 

Does that mean that there is a non-undergorund part of the hunt where we do need horses?

[spellcast 983]

the entire event takes place on freedom market, or under it.  But if you plan to attend the combat portion before the hunt itself and wish to be mounted for it then... well

[spellcast 983]

Update; only a couple of hours to go, I'm still adding side stuff, but have updated the second post in this thread to reflect how the event is going to happen and clarify a few things.

[Baloo 709]

Pity the crypt door was bugged.  Put me right off my first ever treasure hunt and have gone home, irritated and tired - too late for GMT - thx anyway and good luck to the rest of the hunters.

[spellcast 983]

the door wasn't bugged... it was lagging badly, but the way in worked mechanically if done correctly.  If you live nearby give it another shot in the morning, the hunt will still be running for quite some time for those who just want to go explore.

[scottfree 32]

Fun event , thank you Spellcast.

 

My little mag priestess gained 2 levels of fs

[DKSprocket 412]

Thanks for the fun. That mine was really nuts. 

[spellcast 983]

I'm glad people are enjoying it. I had a LOT of help on this one from Alectrys who took time out of squishing bugs to decorate half the mine and most of the above ground crypt for me.  otherwise it would have been a lot of blank empty rooms everywhere.

 

Anyone who gave up due to being tired or didn't get there for the start, at 5 hours in, there are still chests left, and even if you don't get to the chests its a fun exploration and romp through a really messed up mine system.

 

I'll try to run another small combat event approximately 15 hours after the original event started (2pm UTC) on the 31st.

[whykillme 1,621]

Loads of fun, think i liked this hunt way more over others. perhaps because its something new.

 

After loads of running around in circles we were just forced to map the mine out and from there on we finally made it

[Journeya 436]

Loved it - even though I had to go to sleep and continue in the morning. Please do this again

[Pingpong 1,070]

Lots of fun to see a nicely done catacombs

[Gumbo 1,563]

Was a really great hunt, thank ya for hosting the event. Them catacombs, wheeewww, had nightmares after it was all over, still shaking this morning. Six thumbs up (collected from zombies).

[Jaz 2,665]

It was a special one, and had to sleep in the middle - but still found some chests luckily at the end. I wonder if how many side missions I've missed

Thanks a lot for putting it together!

Had no chance without mapping it all up - was just running in circles until we finally started the mapping.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Jaz